Vietnam, Cuba strengthen solidarity, comprehensive cooperation

Hanoi (VNA) – The upcoming official
visit to Vietnam by Chairman of the Cuban National Assembly Esteban Lazo
Hernandez from June 11-18 demonstrates the desire of the two countries to
enhance their special traditional relations, solidarity and comprehensive
cooperation.

Since Vietnam and Cuba established diplomatic
ties in December 1960, the bilateral relations have been incessantly reinforced
and developed.

Fidel Castro was the first and only foreign
leader to visit the southern liberation area of Vietnam in 1973, when the war
was still going on.

Cuba was also the first Latin American country
and one of the first nations in the world to recognise the National Liberation
Front of South Vietnam.

After the wartime, Cuba still stood side by side
with Vietnamese people in the cause of national reconstruction and development,
helping the Southeast Asian country to build transport infrastructure, develop
animal husbandry and train human resources in the fields of agriculture,
construction, architecture, medicine, and social sciences.

Promoting that special tradition, Vietnamese and
Cuban leaders and peoples have spared no efforts to deepen the bilateral
relations via regular high-level visits and implementation of cooperation
mechanisms such as the inter-governmental committee, the Parties’ theoretical
workshop, the foreign ministries’ political consultation, and the
defence-security dialogue.

Both nations have also maintained coordination
and mutual support at international organizations and multilateral forums,
especially at the United Nations.

Regarding the parliamentary relations, the
Vietnamese National Assembly regularly sends delegations to Cuba.

Most recently were the visits
to Cuba by NA Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong in February 2017 and a NA specialized
group in March 2017.

A Vietnamese delegation led by
NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan attended the funeral of Cuban leader Fidel
Castro in November 2016.

The two legislatures also
established friendship parliamentarians’ groups.

Along with sound political relations, the
bilateral economic-trade ties also received due attention. Two-way trade
reached 247.64 million USD in 2016. Currently, Vietnam is the second largest trade
partner of Cuba in Asia. Vietnam mainly exports rice, coal, chemicals,
garment-textile and computers to Cuba while importing pharmaceutical products
from the market.

Vietnam helped Cuba implement a rice farming
project in 2011-2015, which yielded good outcomes, as did some projects in
cultivating maize, soybean and developing aquaculture. The two sides will
consider more agriculture-fisheries joint projects in the coming time.

Over the past few years, the
Vietnamese government has encouraged and created the most favourable conditions
for the two countries’ businesses to expand cooperation.

More Vietnamese firms are keen
to explore investment opportunities in Cuba. The Latin American country is
calling for Vietnamese investment in food production, oil and gas exploration
and mining, industry, tourism, bio-technology, and priority fields at the
Mariel special economic zone.

Both nations also hope to boost cooperation in
telecommunication, defence-security, education-training, culture-medicine, and
science-technology.

During the trip to Vietnam, the Cuban
parliamentary delegation wants to study the role, functions, apparatus and
activities of the Vietnamese legislature, especially of the NA Standing
Committee, as well as share experience in renovation and national development.-VNA